Deputy mayor floats compromise on affordable-housing plan

Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen shares a possible compromise on the de Blasio affordable-housing.plan.

Amid criticism that its affordable housing plan will produce apartments too expensive for the poor, the de Blasio administration has offered a glimpse of a potential compromise to guarantee more low-income units.

But absent more subsidies, it could come at a cost: fewer units for working-class families in certain income tiers.

The idea is to set aside units for households even poorer than those making just 60% of the area median income, balanced by increasing the number of units for households above that 60% figure.

“Clearly to the extent that there is some consistent feedback that we need to look at different tiers, even within the tiers, I think that we’re open to those discussions,” Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen said at a press roundtable Monday.

The idea has long been part of City Hall’s plan, insiders say, but was strategically left out until now so that City Council members could chalk it up as their win. The mayor’s mandatory inclusionary housing zoning proposal hits the council for its first round of hearings Tuesday.

The plan, approved by the City Planning Commission last week, would require that in rezoned areas, developers set aside 25% or 30% of apartments in new buildings as affordable. That swath of units would have to, on average, serve an income tier of those making 60% or 80% of the area median income. AMI for the New York area is $77,700 for a family of three.

In other words, a landlord could rent all of his affordable units in a new building, or 25% of its total units, to people making 60% of the area median income. Or, he could rent half of those affordable units to families making 80% of the area median income and half to those making 40%. Or he could rent some to those making 100% of the area median income and the rest to those making 20% AMI.

Those formulas were determined based on studies of financial feasibility and rates of return for real estate developers, who could challenge the zoning policy in court if they are deprived too much of a profit. Another concern of the administration has been that going too far with affordability requirements would result in no housing being built. It is also a fan of having a diversity of incomes within an area, rather than concentrating poverty, while also taking steps to minimize displacement caused by gentrification.

Glen, who is leading the administration’s effort to shape and pass the housing plan, said the broader formulas were unlikely to move much.

“We feel pretty good about where we landed in terms of economic viability and constitutionality," she said. "Could it move by a point in one direction or not? You know, we don’t want to be completely inflexible but that is pretty much the sweet spot for what we’re trying to get done with this program,” she said.

But she hinted that a solution such as a set-aside of a certain percentage of units for low-income bands is on the table.

“That’s a scenario that I’ve heard floated around that might make some sense,” she said.

Real Affordability for All, the coalition advocating for the plan to skew lower-income, called such a change “tinkering at the edges.”

“The administration needs to go much further to prioritize real affordability and good jobs for low-income New Yorkers,” spokeswoman Maritza Silva-Farrell said.

Groups including the Association for Housing and Neighborhood Development are calling for several changes to the housing proposal, which would affect projects that benefit from a zoning change. They want a mandate that 15% of units be set aside at 30% of area median income, elimination of developers' option to meet affordability requirements with units at 120% of AMI, and that 10% more units be required to off-site affordable buildings that are erected to satisfy the public-interest provisions of the policy.

But the plan has its backers, too. On Tuesday, a coalition of business, labor, civic and religious leaders launched a campaign to support the administration's effort.

At Monday's briefing, Vicki Been, commissioner of the city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development, said the expiration a month ago of the 421-a property tax break, which incentivized developers to create some affordable housing on mostly market-rate projects for a hefty tax break, would not jeopardize the housing plan in the short-term.

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